Danish painter Egill Jacobsen was born in Copenhagen in 1910. He attended the Copenhagen Academy (1932-33), and in his early years hesitated between various aesthetics, from Surrealism to Expressionism.  His family's lack of support was offset by the encouragement of his main teacher. In 1934,...

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  Biography of Egill Jacobsen

  Danish painter Egill Jacobsen was born in Copenhagen in 1910. He attended the Copenhagen Academy (1932-33), and in his early years hesitated between various aesthetics, from Surrealism to Expressionism.  His family's lack of support was offset by the encouragement of his main teacher. 
  In 1934, Jacobsen went to Paris, where he met the European modernists for the first time: Matisse, Picasso, Léger and Miro. A personal encounter with Picasso left a deep impression on him. Back in Denmark, he inaugurated an original style: Scandinavian prehistoric and folk art, and primitive art served as primary references for his large-scale studies entitled "masks" or "objects", which he produced from 1935 onwards; some of his paintings heralded the "abstract expressionism" of 1955-1960. The artist became a leader of the GAS movement in 1937, and an active member of the Danish painters' groups Linien (The Line, 1934-39) and Host (The Harvest, 1934-50). In 1938, when Czechoslovakia was forced to cede vast swathes of territory to Nazi Germany, Jacobsen, like many of his artist friends, became deeply involved with the political left.An active member of the "Helhesten" magazine group during the Second World War (a magazine on what some at the time called "degenerate art"), he later joined the Cobra group (1948-1951), alongside Asger Jorn, Ejler Bille, Carl-Henning Pedersen and Henry Heerup. Jacobsen played an important role in contemporary Danish art and became a professor at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. His compositions, enhanced by vivid colors, are generally evocative of a fabulous universe where human beings, animals and plants mingle in a spontaneous yet rigorous interplay, half-decorative, half-expressive.In 1952, he had his first solo exhibition at Galerie Birch (Copenhagen). The critically acclaimed exhibition was a great success, which he sorely needed after a period of very poor living. The Galerie Birch supported him for many years. Egill Jacobsen's work can be interpreted in a very biographical way; the dark, dramatic paintings are created in times of personal or social crisis, and the light, easy compositions reflect a joyful spirit. Indeed, his character is often characterized by his tremendous creative joy and zest for life.The Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen holds a first-rate selection of his work, as does the Aalborg Museum. A major exhibition was held at the Museum of Modern Art in Copenhagen in 1996.Egill Jacobsen died in 1998 in Copenhagen. He was 87 years old.
  
  

  

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